April 22, 2010

NYSERDA Funding Helps St. Elizabeth Medical Center Install Energy Efficient Co-Generation System to Cut Costs, Provide Additional Backup

$2 million NYSERDA Funds Provide Nearly $800,000 in Annual Benefits to Hospital

Utica --  April 22, 2010-Saint Elizabeth Medical Center, Utica has been awarded $2 million by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to design and install a co-generation system that will save the hospital nearly $800,000 every year while significantly cutting its energy use and providing additional secure backup for critical hospital operations.  In addition, the system will showcase an emerging practice that will allow the hospital to obtain revenues by selling power back to the power grid.

“The system St. Elizabeth is installing is good for both patients and for the environment.  It will also help control health care costs,” said Francis J. Murray, president and CEO of NYSERDA.  “NYSERDA congratulates the hospital for its leadership and initiative.  Its efforts will decrease energy use and help New York achieve the ambitious energy reduction goals Governor David Paterson set to increase our energy security, improve our environment, and create jobs.”
St. Elizabeth Chief Operating Officer Robert Scholefield said, “The Medical Center’s staff appreciates NYSERDA’s support of this project, which will help us to conserve environmental resources while also utilizing financial resources to best provide services to people across our region.”

The highly efficient on-site co-generation system will allow St. Elizabeth each year to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 900 tons, reduce energy costs by $690,000, and provide revenues of $107,000 for energy the hospital will supply back to the power grid.  The system, (called Combined Heat and Power (CHP) or co-generation), increases efficiency by capturing and using the waste heat in the day-to-day operations of the hospital.  The hospital will not be affected during grid-power interruptions. 

State Senator Joseph A. Griffo said: “It's important that the public sees that NYSERDA is spurring economic growth and investing State dollars in our local economy. This infusion of funds is welcomed --  the green improvements made to St. Elizabeth's Medical Center power generation ability will have long-term benefits for the region and positively impact their continued commitment to the healthcare needs of our region. The reality is that there's more demand throughout the community for such projects - I commend NYSERDA President/CEO Frank Murray and his managers for their efforts in quickly identifying and prioritizing them.”   

Assemblywoman RoAnn M. Destito said:  "This project will significantly help St. Elizabeth Medical Center to reduce its operating costs, which will decrease the cost of health care, and also help our environment.  The Medical Center's plan to sell power back to the power grid is a great example of a collaborative approach that will bring many benefits for years to come.  NYSERDA provides the technical and financial assistance that our state's businesses need to reduce power consumption, and to become more energy efficient."

A sophisticated tracking system developed by Intelligent Energy Solutions (IES) the project developer will monitor both the hospital’s energy operations and energy pricing to allow St. Elizabeth’s to determine the economics of generating their own power vs. purchasing power through the electric grid and also when economics would dictate producing excess power and selling it back to the utility.  Four years worth of hourly performance data will be collected by NYSERDA and shared with other entities to help them improve their energy planning. 

NYSERDA provided $1 million to Faxton-St. Lukes Healthcare/Utica College to install a similar CHP system which was commissioned in July 2009 and has helped those institutions reduce energy costs by $800,000 per year.

For the last decade, NYSERDA has promoted the CHP process to help businesses and institutions generate cleaner and more efficient power and to develop trailblazing equipment, economically-important applications, and novel business models that can benefit a variety of users.  Each NYSERDA R&D investment is selected to help sites acquire premium technology and create new learning opportunities for other energy users. Over the past 10 years, NYSERDA’s investments of more than $100 million for CHP have helped industrial, commercial and institutional facilities implement innovative approaches to cut their energy costs and decrease their energy use.  During this time, NYSERDA has amassed the most comprehensive repository of publicly-available CHP performance data in the nation.

To learn more about NYSERDA’s programs, visit  NYSERDA Programs Combined Heat and Power (CHP)

Contact:
Jeffrey Gordon, NYSERDA
518-862-1090 ext. 3544
jrg@nyserda.org